The 2006 Yamaha YZF-R1 LE livery, which was a yellow, black, and white homage to Kenny Roberts Sr., is perhaps the greatest livery ever to adorn an R1, straight from the Yamaha factory. Whether you are a loyal subject of King Kenny, or you just enjoy the fetching, yet simple, racing design, the Roberts livery is a treasure to see in any form — but especially so at speed. Giving us a glimpse as to what the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 would look like with such a limited edition paint scheme, Oberdan Bezzi has once again whet our appetite ahead of a weekend full of riding. And for you Giacomo Agostini fans, there is something special waiting for you after the jump as well. Enjoy!

After first showing us the Honda SFA and Honda CRF250 Rally concepts, Big Red made good on its promise for another motorcycle concept premiere at the Osaka Motorcycle Show, debuting the Honda Bulldog concept. With the face of a Ruckus, and built to “leisurely” take-on the great outdoors in an unassuming manor, the Honda Bulldog is a stout off-roader that adds a new slant to the term adventure-bike. With wide 15″ knobby tires, a 28″ seat height, and 400cc parallel-twin engine mated to a six-speed gearbox, the Bulldog certainly isn’t what you expect to see bombing down the trails, yet it sorta makes sense.

If you believe the reports coming out of India and Southeast Asia, Yamaha is working on a naked version of its YZF-R25 sport bike. Presumably to be call the Yamaha MT-25, the naked bike would continue Yamaha’s trend of making naked version of its fully faired sport bikes, similar to the recently released Yamaha MT-125 that is available for the European market. With images of the machine testing on public roads abounding, the MT-25 seems likely to see production, so the real intrigue will be in what markets Yamaha makes the machine available. With Honda already offering faired (Honda CBR300R) and unfaired versions (Honda CB300F) of its small-displacement motorcycle in the US, Yamaha could easily go head-to-head with Big Red with the YZF-R3 and an FZ-03 variant, based off the R3 design.

Need further proof that the future of motorcycling will include electrics? Take this recently published patent application from Kawasaki, that the Japanese OEM filed for back in 2011. The claims are fairly rudimentary, though they do include a transmission, with Kawasaki’s lawyers mostly outlining the basics of a motorcycle powered by an electric motor, of course the news is less about the contents of the patent application, and more about the fact that it was applied for, in the first place. When will we see an electric motorcycle concept from Kawasaki is anyone’s guess, though there are two big motorcycle shows coming up in Japan in a couple weeks’ time. In reality, we doubt we’ll see something so soon from Kawasaki, but if the Kawasaki H2 has shown us anything, it is that anything is possible from Kawasaki right now.

Why would KTM be riding around on a camouflaged Aprilia Tuono V4? That is the question of the day, after a spy photographer caught the Austrian company testing in Spain with such a machine. The answer of course points to KTM working on a V4 street bike platform, which shouldn’t be too surprising since KTM CEO Stefan Pierer already tipped the media off to the fact that it is working on a MotoGP entry that would be based around a beastly V4 engine called the RC16. While Pierer confirmed the MotoGP, as well as a track-only consumer version of the GP bike, zie Austrians have been mum about other motorcycles in KTM’s lineup sharing the new V4 powerplant.

Adventure riders, you prayers have been answered. Honda is set to debut a new off-road model at the Osaka Motorcycle Show, the Honda CRF250 Rally. Based off the Honda CRF250L platform, the Rally concept is basically the CRF250L with rally-styled bodywork. The Honda CRF250 Rally concept will get its worldwide debut alongside the Honda True Adventure concept, which we first saw at last year’s EICMA show. This makes for an interesting dichotomy, as the CRF250 Rally is set to look like the CRF450 Rally race bike, while the True Adventure (cough, Africa Twin, cough) borrows heavily from the race bike’s technology package. With Honda showing a 250cc ADV model and a 1,000cc model at the same show, one has to wonder when a consumer-level version of the CRF450 Rally race bike will be ready as well.

After it first debuted in Indonesia last October, the Honda SFA concept motorcycle seems to be getting serious, as Honda will be showing the up-market bike at this weekend’s Osaka Motorcycle Show and next weekend’s Tokyo Motorcycle Show. While Honda only mentions that the SFA concept is a “street-fighter style light-weight motorcycle with a single cylinder engine mounted on a trellis frame,” sources in Indonesia say the fetching small-displacement machine is built around the 150cc CB150R for that market. Whether this means that Honda will make more premium-focused 150cc machines, and bring them to markets outside of Asia remains to be seen, though it is clear that the Japanese firm is taking such an approach under serious consideration.

Italy’s favorite boutique brand will be back at the Isle of Man TT races this year, with a two rider team that includes American Brandon Cretu. Cretu and his teammate Ben Wylie will campaign for Bimota at the big four road races (North West 200, Isle of Man TT, Ulster Grand Prix, and Macau GP) on-board the Bimota BB3 superbike. This is not the first time that Cretu and Wylie have raced together, having shared a pit while at the Wylie Racing team during the 2011 and 2012 Isle of Man TT races. Though the Bimota BB3 was ruled ineligible for FIM events, the international road racing scene has no hang-ups letting the S1000RR-powered superbikes lineup on the starting grid.

We are still waiting for the 2015 MV Agusta F4 RC to break cover officially, but the top-of-the-line superbike from Varese continues to make itself sneakily available to the public. First there were the leaked studio photos, which looked spot-on to the photos MV Agusta USA teased us with at its press launch earlier this year. Now, we have more photos of the F4 RC leaking, though with some changes to the design — namely more prominent “AMG” badging, for MV Agusta’s newest minority partner. The 2015 MV Agusta F4 RC isn’t supposed to arrive at dealerships until June 2015; and when it does, it will be in limited numbers. The F4 RC is MV Agusta’s homologation special for World Superbike and domestic superbike racing classes.

Aprilia Racing boss Romano Albesiano has big shoes to fill. Taking over from Gigi Dall’Igna, Albesiano must continue the legacy of success which his predecessor left for him. He got off to a good start, Sylvain Guintoli lifting the World Superbike title in Albesiano’s first year at the helm. Now comes the hard part, following up on that success and expanding into MotoGP. A small group of journalists spoke to Albesiano at the Aprilia launch in Milan. In a wide-ranging conversation, the Aprilia boss covered many topics, including explaining why the Noale firm came back to MotoGP a year ahead of schedule, touching on what the new bike Aprilia is working on for 2016 and beyond might look like, and the 2016 rules in MotoGP.

Another model year, and another limited edition Suzuki GSX-R that has been done-up by Yoshimura. We are a little light on official details regard the 2013 Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R Limited Edition series, but from the looks of things the Japanese tuning brand has again slapped on a number of its hard bits to Suzuki’s sport bike line-up, with an appropriately unique paint job as well.

If we were to copy and paste-in the highlights from the 2012 series, which is what its seems Yoshimura has done, it seems we get a good start on the description of what we are seeing here, though it looks like a custom saddle, mirror block-off plates, wave brake discs, OZ wheels, and a rear shock linkage kit have been added to the mix as well as optional items.

If it happens to tickle your fancy, you can contact your local Suzuki dealer, who supposedly knows how to order one of these things. Don’t ask us about price, we don’t even have a PR contact number for American Suzuki right now. So yeah, we are pretty much only bringing you photos and the same press release as last year.

While the Suzuki GSX-R600 & GSX-R750 were updated for the 2011 model year, it seems like Suzuki’s crowned king of the liter-bike class hasn’t see a touch-up since the Reagan administration. This is due in part because of Suzuki’s staggered development life-cycle, but primarily rests on the motorcycle industry apocalypse that many just refer to as the past recession. Because of the economic downturn, Suzuki had an overabundance of motorcycles sitting in its domestic warehouses, causing the Japanese company not to bring over any more fresh units for the North American market.

2011 marks another iteration of the venerable Suzuki GSX-R platform, with the GSX-R600 and GSX-R750 getting an overhaul that sees both bikes’ weight lowered to near anorexic levels. Starting with first with the GSX-R750, it’s hard to believe though that this superbike, along with the GSX-R1000 & GSX-R600 can trace their heritage back 26 years, with many of those years being at the pinnacle of motorcycle performance, racing, and design.

To commemorate and highlight the company’s achievements, Suzuki has put together this short video that underlines the models that have come from the GSX-R’s rich history. Some of the technical achievements are pretty astounding when you see when they occurred (for example, electronically adjusted suspension (NEAS) in 1986…that’s just now becoming an optional feature on consumer streetbikes). It’s a pretty neat history lesson on one of the most recognizable brands in the sportbike market. Check it out after the jump.

Here’s one to help you pass the final minutes before the weekend: a stop-action video of a GSX-R seemingly building itself up from a bucket of parts. Created by what appears to be a father/son duo in their garage, the video is really well done. Things get insane at the 3:30 mark, and is a testament to the 30+ hours it took to film the video. Check it out after the jump.

Big CC Racing, a British tuning company has unleashed the fury on a 2007 Suzuki GSX-R1000 with a kit of their own design that boosts the bike’s power to anywhere between 250hp to 450hp. The result? Wheelies in any gear. With no apparent adjustments to the bike’s geometry, we don’t know why they even bothered keeping the front-wheel on the bike at this point, because all the rider is going to be seeing is the sky with that wheeling lofting in front of him.

Suzuki has initiated a safety improvement campaign, which is not a recall…but kinda really is totally a lot like one…sorta. A safety improvement is not conducted under the United States Safety Act, but is carried out when a manufacturer voluntarily modifies or replaces a vehicle already out on the road. This one is in regards to a potential frame problem with the 2005 and 2006 GSX-R1000, which means it affects over 26,000 motorcycles.

The safety improvement is being conducted because cracking or breakage of the bike’s frame can occur in certain extreme situations where unusually high stress is placed on the frame. Repeated hard landings from hazardous maneuvers such as extreme or extended wheelies or other stunts may generate sufficient stress to cause this problem. If the frame becomes broken during extreme use, a crash could occur.

Gixxer 1000 owners should take their bike down to the local Suzuki dealer for an inspection for cracks. If no cracks are found, a frame reinforcement brace will be attached to the frame using bolts and epoxy adhesive. Should cracks be found during the inspection, the frame will be replaced with a new frame that has the reinforcement brace installed. The campaign began on January 21, 2009. Owners may contact Suzuki at 1-714-572-1490.

There’s a certain irony to this article that we can’t quite place our finger on…